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The Early Medieval Cemetery at Gluvine Kuće in Glavice near Sinj
Ante Milošević
; Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika HR -Split 21 000
Sažetak
The results oj rescue excavation oj a small early mediaeval cemetery at the site ojGluvine Kuće, in Glavice near Sinj, are published in this article.
Rescue excavation at this site uncovered 14 graves, jloored, lined, and covered with slabs ofsilty sedimentmy stone. One speCialJeature ojthe cemetery was carved crosses on some grave covers, mainly those by the Jeet.
Two phases oj burial at this cemetery can be distinguished clearly according to the grave Jinds. The later phase includes the majority oj Rraves (graves 2-9, 11-14), and the earlier phase (graves 1 and 10) is distinguished Jrom the other by the appearance oj the graves, the orientation, and the grave goods.
The jewellery Jorms discovered in the later, more numerous group oj early mediaeval graves at GlaVice, with the exceptional Jind of a deJormed bronze "S-shaped" earring Jrom grave 11, belonged to the most common type oj early mediaeval jewellery in Dalmatia: single-beaded earrings and ordinary circlets. This type ofjewellery has been found to the present at a series ofsites in the area between the Cetina and Zrmanja Rivers, and the closest similar examples were discovered in the Solin-Kaštela region (at the sites of: Solin -GlaviČine, Solin -Rižinice, Kaštel Sućurac -Gajine, Bijaći -Sv. Marta). Such examples ofsingle-beaded earrings and temple-rings from the site at Ghtvine Kuće in Glavice are usually dated to the 9th or 1ath century, and were also sporadically in use during the 11th century. The fact that in three offour cases the single-beaded earrings discovered at Gluvine Kuće were not found in pairs might suggest that they should be dated to the period at the end of their use, i.e. in the 11th century. The remaining earrings from this group ofgraves belong to the type of Simplest and most common circlets with separated ends, which are sometimes, for easier attachment, pointed or bent into a loop. There are also numerous analogies to these, and in the Dalmatian region there are almost no mediaeval cemeteries where they have not been found. They are not a good element for dating, as they were in use for a very long time, and the same is true for the cast bronze ringlet from grave 11, which is the most common inventary ofmediaeval graves in Dalmatia. Grave 11 contained the interesting and importantfind of an only slightly deformed bronze "S-shaped"earring, which determines the upper boundary ofdating this group of graves at the cemetery of Gluvine Kuće as the 12th century.
Particularly interesting elements of the early mediaeval cemetery at Gluvine Kuće in Glavice were the finds from grave 1, in which a double burial took place. The second burial relocated the remains ofthe first, along with the accompanying finds, andfrom their arrangement in the grave it is possible to reconstruct in approximate fashion the grave units belonging to the first grave and to the second one. The position of the goods in the grave and their relation to the remains of the skeletons indicate that the second, later burial would probably have been accompanied by the small iron knife, a pottery vessel, a bone needle-case with an iron needle and a bronze mount, and two rings, while the remaining finds (a pair of damaged star-shaped or related earrings, a bronze bell, and a buckle) would have belonged to the first, earlier burial. The fact that one of the earrings (the better preserved one) was found under the slab that formed the base of the /?rave should be considered to rejlect the partial alteration of the grave at the time of the second burial, meaning it is likely that the grave was rejloored when reburial took place in it.
The question of when all of this took place naturally remains open. Some of the finds from both phases of burial in this grave, luckily enou/?h, are fairly diagnostic, and this greatly facilitates dating and makes various hypotheses more likely. From the first group, as very typical finds, we can note the star-shaped or typologically similar filigree earrings characteristic for the early Byzantine culture of the 6th-8th centuries. They are common in the areas under strong Byzantine injluence in that period, and they are found in graves of the early Middle Ages in a broad European region extending from Sicily, through Italy and Pannonia, all the way to the Ukraine. They are not a particularly common find in Dalmatia, and have been found to date at Golubić near Knin, at Visočane near Zadar, and probably are among the inventories ofgraves at the early mediaeval cemetery of Ždrijac in Nin, at Dubravice near Skradin, and in a grave at the pan:sh church ofSt Anselm in Nin. Along with thesefiligree golden and silver earrings of star-shaped and similar types, the early mediaeval material culture in Dalmatia also contains related contemporary cast bronze variants.
The bronze bell and buckle are considerably earlier than the discovered filigree earrings, and they belong to the first centuries AD, and they were probably in subsequent use next to the deceased in the first phase ofburial in grave 1. As such, they are interesting, as the entire grave inventory from this burial phase reveals a greater chronological and cultural contiguity to the civilization of antiquity than to that ofthe Middle Ages.
The graves goods in the secondphase ofburial in grave 1 consist of a pottery vessel, an iron knife, a bone needle-case with an iron needle and abronze mount, and two silver rings with a crowns hammered flat and unconnected ends.
Pottery vessels in graves until recently were a clear indicator which defined the entire inventary of a grave chronologically, culturally, and even ethnically, but several years ago we showed that grave finds with such vessels can equally belong to either the period of late antiquity or the early mediaeval period. Approximately the same conclusion can be applied to rings of silver sheet metal with hammered crowns, held by Croatian archaeological science to be a characteristic of early mediaeval early Croatian graves of the 8th century and beginning of the 9th. However, recently discovered examples ofsimilar rings in graves ofthe late Roman and early Byzantine periods in Dalmatia, as well as similarfinds from the Komani Culture in Albania, also confinn a late Roman or rather early Byzantine origin for this type of jewellery, dating it approximately to the same period, the second half of the 7th century or more likely, in the 8th century.
The remaining objectsfrom the secondphase ofburial in grave 1 of the cemetery at Gluvine Kuće in Glavice, the bone needle-case with an iron needle and bronze mounts, in origin probably belong to the same cultural circle despite the fact that such objects have been found in Croatia to the present only in early mediaeval graves. Other than one questionable example from grave 5 of the cemetery at Maklinovo Brdo in Kašić near Zadar, they have only been found among the objects from four female graves of the major, but still not completely published early mediaeval cemetery at Ždrijac in Nin.
These finds from Nin are exceptionally important, as they appear alongSide objects such as were found in the grave in Glavice; in one case together with two silver rings with hammered and stamp-decorated crowns, and in two cases along with starshaped or typologically related filigree earrings. For dating and determining the cultural origin of the needle-cases from graves at the edrijac cemetery, it is interesting that in three out offour cases the needle containers were found there with necklaces composed of a raw of shaped beads of glass paste and pale blue chalcedony, and such jewellery is also undoubtedly derived from late classical fonns. It is additionally interesting that a necklace of such beads was found in an early mediaeval grave at the site of Maklinovo Brdo in the village ofKašić near Zadar, and that this same grave unit from Kašić included a striking cast bronze semicircular pendant. Such pendants are characteristic for late classical and early mediaeval sites along the eastern Adriatic coast. They appear in the 7th century, and are partly in use in the 8th century, as well. They have been found at several sites along the Croatian part of this coast, and they are most numerous among the finds from contemporary graves in the area ofpresent-day Albania. There they are classified to the already mentioned Komani Culture, and it is known that the majority uf elements of this priman:ty early mediaeval cultural group were derived from the late Roman and early Byzantine cultural sphere.
Given the cited comparisons and acceptance of the dating of such typical archaeological material, the finds from grave 1 ofthe early mediaeval cemetery at Gluvine Kuće in Glavice can be considered in a similar manner, in which the first phase of burial would belong to the second half of the 7th century, and the other to the first half of the 8th century. If we accept the suggested cultural detennination and origin of these finds, thus with a strong dependence on the late classical tradition, we have to a great extent defined the possible ethnic bearer of these finds, which in our case could be a surviving late classical population, who along the northern edge ofSinj Plain would then still have been defending the remnants of the once extensive province of Dalmatia, reduced merely to the minute territory ofthe archdiocese ofSalona by the previous Avaro-Slavic invasions in the 7th century.
The later graves ofthe early mediaeval period at Gluvine Kuće were buried next to this earlier one purely by chance, and do not indicate a continuity of the cemetery, but only possibly a continuity in inhabitation, considering that it is very likely that hoth were buried nearby a settlement. As mostly single examples of singlebeaded earrings were found in these later graves ufthe early mediaeval period, we have suggested a dating ofthis group ofgraves to the 11th century, i.e. in the early Croatian period of the Cetina region 's past, at a time when this entire area, like most of Dalmatia, was already well populated by Croats. The perceived similarities ofthe entire grave inventary ofthe Glavice graves, particularly to those from the Solin-Ka6tela region, would reflect their cultural, and thus administrative unifonnity, and at this time, and throughout this entire region, this would most likely be maintained by the archbishopric ofSplit, as the successor to the former archdiocese of Salona.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
93311
URI
Datum izdavanja:
12.9.1997.
Posjeta: 2.135 *